Murder At The Gun Show

Yesterday I went to the gun show at the Costa Mesa Fairgrounds out here in The OC.

There were displays of rifles, shotguns, and hand guns both new and used. There were displays of reloaders, empty shells, huge boxes of ammo, tasers, military surplus gear and, oddly enough, a Mary Kay table.

It seemed that everything was pretty much ok. Then, a shot rang out. Most everyone ducked and of course there was screaming. I heard a scuffle a few rows up and someone was shouting and telling everyone to calm down and to get an ambulance right away. One of the attendees got angry with a man running a display and shot him dead.

The story above is a work of fiction. I did go to the gun show and saw everything described but there was no murder. There were thousands of guns, probably millions of rounds of ammo and absolutely nothing happened. There was no violence, no one fired off a shot and everybody behaved in a civilized manner.

There were no warning signs posted but whenever someone picked up a weapon, they always kept it pointed up, away from the crowd. There were people of all ages and races there and some folks brought their children.